Thundercat: Overwhelm Overload Overstim Right on Time

Some artists make music that whisks us into a dreamy space where life is better, softer, more streamlined, and warmer. In these uncertain times, they give us the gift of escape, allowing us to revisit the past or imagine a better future. Other artists use music to help us articulate what’s wrong with the world. As we stand at the precipice of seismic, fundamental change, they remind us what’s at stake and ask us to consider the role we play in preserving the planet for future generations.

Thundercat does neither. His music directly reflects the wild times we’re living through, acknowledging our singularly modern flavor of dystopia with humor, near-future musicality, and resilience — not stiff resistance, but the kind of flexible strength that bends instead of breaking.

When it was released a couple weeks into the pandemic, Thundercat’s It Is What It Is perfectly matched our collective feelings. Six long years later, Distracted finds us fast-forwarding through movies as we doomscroll through social media, text each other, hold multiple conversations, scan the headlines, and worry about what’s next.

It’s no surprise, then, that Distracted is all over the map. The subdued opener “Candlelight” is a loving nod to revered L.A. music teacher Reggie Andrews and jazz/hip-hop promoter Meghan Stabile, who passed away within days of each other in 2022. You’ve no doubt already danced to “No More Lies,” the 2023 Tame Impala collabo with a hilariously current relationship monologue. “She Knows Too Much” is a sweet throwback built to break your heart, while “I Did This to Myself” centers around a twisty bass line and killer falsetto. “What Is Left to Say” flaunts Thundercat’s masterful handling of vintage vibes. Dig that big dirty bass line on “This Thing We Call Love” and the thumpin’ low end on “Funny Friends.” “I Wish I Didn’t Waste Your Time,” “A.D.D. Through the Roof,” and “Anakin Learns His Fate” fit snugly alongside earlier Bruner classics, but the retro acoustic piano, angular melody, and Brian Wilson vibe of “Pozole” is something else entirely. “Walking on the Moon” is a guaranteed earworm, and like the spacious, epic “ThunderWave,” it’s yet another reminder of how comfortable Thundercat has become as a singer. The stark closer, “You Left Without Saying Goodbye,” mixes heartbreak and humor as only Thundercat can. Distracted is all about relationships, overwhelm, and modern love — with huge bass lines everywhere, the obligatory cat reference, and plenty of food for thought. 

Besides the hip-hop royalty (Lil Yachty, A$AP Rocky, Channel Tres) who step to the mic, there are superb contributions from Willow, Beck, Haley Joe Osment (yes, the Sixth Sense actor), and a horn section of L.A. pros, including Vikram Devasthali, Jordan Katz, Juliane Gralle, Dan Reckard, and the celebrated saxophonist Gerald Albright. Old friends like Flying Lotus, Pedro Martins, Taylor Graves, and JD Beck and DOMi bless the proceedings. The Lemon Twigs (New York-based siblings Brian and Michael D’Addario) bring gorgeous new spices to the mix alongside Nick Lee, Aaron Paris, and Kenny Beats, producers who’ve all worked with Geese. A newly released collabo with Mac Miller makes us miss him even more. But the biggest influence was producer Greg Kurstin, whose supreme musicality took the album in new directions (see sidebar).

By the time It Is What It Is won a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album in 2021, Thundercat was already a seasoned road warrior, but in the last five years, he’s done nearly 300 shows around the world. He has also stayed busy acting in Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett; performing with the Yo Gabba Gabba! crew; gettin’ down on “Children of the Baked Potato” with Remi Wolf; rockin’ onstage with A$AP Rocky and with Spinal Tap; sharing vocal duties with Bootsy on the Silk Sonic smash “After Last Night”; playing the Grammys with Steve Lacy; getting the Miles Davis Award from the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal; contributing music to Gap, Diet Coke, Candy Crush Saga, and Listerine commercials; as well as doing collabs with Kaytranada, Ty Dolla $ign, Vic Mensa, Gorillaz, Kendrick Lamar, Kehlani, Denzel Curry, NxWorries, Joji, JasonMartin and DJ Quik, Metro Boomin, Justice, and Tyler, the Creator. “People tell me I look tired,” Thundercat says. “They ain’t wrong!”

We hung out with Thundercat on Zoom as he drove around L.A. a couple weeks before the beginning of his European tour.

There’s a subtext happening that is just so volatile. At least it isn’t boring. Is that a plus? Orange cat energy 2026, just knocking stuff off the counter.

How you been, man? 

Breathing in the allergens. You know, just accepting and admitting, praying and accepting. Embracing the ashiness. My knuckles are going to crack and bleed. Let’s go!

Congrats on the new album! 

It’s just nice to be back with something, you know? Everything feels weird. Everything feels crazy. It’s gotten weirder, but we just have to keep going and keep holding on to the light.

We’re living in interesting times, right?

There’s a subtext happening that is just so volatile. At least it isn’t boring. Is that a plus? Orange cat energy 2026, just knocking stuff off the counter. [laughter] 

This album is expressing things that we’re all thinking about. 

Some of us got a chance [to experience life before the internet], but the generations after us were thrown into it. Something about that ain’t right. Somehow, I landed — less sugar, more vegetables, work out, and stay hydrated. I’m being silly, but I’m also like, I think that’s just who we are right now.

I’m curious to see how all this affects the next generation of musicians. 

I am, too. The community that we had growing up is fractured and splintered in different directions. I know it exists, but I don’t know what the hell is going on. There’s just so much information. The internet feeds you so many different directions.

He allowed me to dig around in my own head, singing and creating ideas, without trying to influence my decisions. We would just talk about history, listen to records, and play through tunes. It’s rare I get to do that with somebody I am working so closely with.

How did Greg Kurstin enter the picture?

We’ve always known about each other. Greg’s work speaks for itself, and there’s a lot of Los Angeles history that’s intertwined between us. 

What was the vibe when y’all started working together?

Right in the beginning, we were already laughing like Beavis and Butthead. I was like, here we go! We both got the jokes. We see the silver lining and the gray area. I’m grateful that he was right there with me on this one. 

How did he help you get it done?

He gently took the wheel and helped me navigate a very complicated moment. Everything felt very natural, you know what I’m saying?

It doesn’t always happen like that.

It doesn’t. He allowed me to dig around in my own head, singing and creating ideas, without trying to influence my decisions. We would just talk about history, listen to records, and play through tunes. It’s rare I get to do that with somebody I am working so closely with — fundamental musician stuff, you know, like playing standards, working out different types of chordal approaches, and reharmonizing things. We could play through a Zappa tune and then work on the music. 

The Lemon Twigs brought out a whole other flavor.

What a joy. They’re real songwriters! Streaming makes people take real musicianship for granted, but this music is made by people who really play. I’m very enamored by their work. It was great to be able to feed off each other and contribute to each other’s ideas. It just felt very nice to work with Brian and Michael.

You cover a lot of ground on this album.

It felt crazy trying to get to it. It’s been very hard because so many things happened at once. Moving forward was almost like having to learn how to walk again.

I got hit so hard upside the head, emotionally, after that last album, that I was like, what am I doing and who am I? I felt like I had to go sit down somewhere, to breathe and get to know myself again.

You felt like you were starting over?

Absolutely. I got hit so hard upside the head, emotionally, after that last album, that I was like, what am I doing and who am I? I felt like I had to go sit down somewhere, to breathe and get to know myself again. For a moment there, it was really hard to recognize myself.

Damn.

Yeah, it’s been an interesting few years. Making this album was a journey, to say the least. 

When did you start working on it?

I couldn’t tell you where it began. I would always be writing with [Flying] Lotus or working with different artists. That’s why Greg played a key role in this — he approached me with the intention of, “We are working on your album.” Life tends to melt all these things together, so putting that hat on was very important for me. 

Were you thinking about how it was going to translate, or were you just opening the door and seeing what wanted to come through?

Opening the door. It’s an all-encompassing experience. It could turn into a “Children of the Baked Potato” or it could turn into me sitting there overstimulated. It could go either way, so I have to be okay with wherever it goes. I try not to fight what I want to sing or what’s really going on inside me. Sometimes it’s like, “Oh, I feel like this way — but that’s not how this music is coming out.” Sometimes, the music will inform the lyrics.

Greg co-wrote some of these songs on keyboards, right?

That’s the magic: Greg could hear what I was writing on bass, and he would be able to change or reharmonize it and be like, “What about doing this here?”

Have you had that before?

Only a certain kind of musician and musicianship, a Greg or an Austin Peralta, can go this way — “Try this. What about this?” We tinker, choose specific voicings, make the melody chromatic, that kind of stuff.

Without judgment.

That’s the idea, to be comfortable with whatever it turns into. Even singing in front of Greg, singing the contents of how I’m feeling, can be a bit weird. It seems funny, but it’s also very sensitive subject. There’s a lot of joking to what I do; the seriousness of it sometimes can still translate like a joke. 

What a gift that Greg was able to facilitate that.

I’m very grateful. 

And what a cast of characters on this album!

Oh, man! JD and Domi. Pedro. Beck. There’s lots of different people here. Haley Joel Osment. And of course, Mac Miller. 

It’s great to hear new Mac!

That’s my heart. I’m so happy to hear him again. It’s a full circle moment. That song is who we really were; that’s what everybody would see. I’m grateful that [Miller manager] Christian Clancy and the estate felt like this was the right thing.

It still stings that Mac is gone.

I sit with it every day. Every day. And I’m grateful for the time spent. I’m grateful for his care to my life. I’m grateful for the people whose paths intertwined as a result of him smoking cigarettes and messing around with the drum machine. Memories, man!

People joke that they never see me playing a 4-string, but it’s not foreign to me. The main Ibanez will always be the bass for me, though.

Did you play any new instruments on this album? 

My Asuka bass is a joy to play. It’s got its own character and its own life, and I spent a lot of time writing on it. Greg had a couple instruments I messed with, too, like his old-school Ibanez, Gibson, and Fender basses. 

Did they bring out something different in you?

Yeah, different characteristics. People joke that they never see me playing a 4-string, but it’s not foreign to me. The main Ibanez will always be the bass for me, though. Every now and again, Pedro [Martins] would pick my bass up and be like, “Man, this is a lot. Why do you torture yourself like this?” That’s the joy of it. The weight and the pain and the sprawling of the fingers on said instrument is always like, “Uh, that hurts so good.”

Do you stay in touch with Dennis and Justin when y’all aren’t on the road? 

I FaceTimed Justin the other day, and he looked like he was having a good time. I’m always excited to hear where he’s been, what he’s been working on. Justin’s got to be one of the sweetest dudes I’ve ever met. I see him smile at me sometimes and I go, I’m alright. I’ll be fine. And Dennis… We like to clown each other. He’s been on his computer developing something that’s absolutely amazing — I don’t know where he’s at with it, but I’m excited to see what it becomes.

We’re kind of like the Star Trek crew. It’s not Picard, because Picard made sense of things. This is pre-Next Generation James Tiberius Kirk, the craziest captain, with Bones and Mr. Spock. Justin’s like Bones and Dennis is like Mr. Spock. We make a great team, and we enjoy each other. I couldn’t ask for more.

I love seeing you live. At your shows, the audiences leave it all on the dance floor.

I’m grateful for my fans. They are my life. I post stupid stuff every day because I hope I make whoever’s following me’s day a little bit better.

You’ve been around the block a couple times. How does it feel to be at this point in your career?

I’m grateful. Every now and again, someone will call me an OG, and I’ll be like, “Who, me?” Anytime that joke comes around, it’s like, “Alright, old man.” I should be so lucky. When people say that, what I hear is, just keep going. I’m here for the ones who aren’t — for Austin [Peralta], for Zane [Musa], for Mac, for Meghan [Stabile]. When people call me old, I say, “Thank you.”

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